Happily Ever After
by bredalot
Summary: ...or What Might Have Been. A vignette or two, with a dog. Future fluff. Pure nonsense, just for fun.


**Disclaimer: I do not own The X-Files, though I will admit to feeling a strong possessiveness towards it.**

_A/N: Shameless and rather pointless future/AU fluff. This is just a bit of silliness that is inspired by that picture from the Australian Vanity Fair (I think) with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in bed with a dog (I hate that I can't include a link - if you want it, let me know and I'll get it to you, or you can probably find it on Google). The picture put me in such a good mood that this just came out. I hope it makes you as happy. Incidentally, I really want to name a dog "Fox" – isn't it just perfect?_

She wakes to a wet snuffling in her ear and a weight across her chest, surrounded by warmth with the sheets tangled about her waist.

She moves her head a little fretfully and stirs vaguely under the covers, but the turning of her head is met with a wet tongue across her mouth and nose, muffling her breathing. She snorts and laughs, covering her face with her free hand. "Mulder!"

She feels his weight shift as he stirs, and then she feels his breath hot and wet on her neck. He's laughing. His arm tightens around her, and she grabs it. "Help me!"

"X!" The dog has shifted his tongue to her ear, and she arches back to avoid it. She's laughing. "Come here!" X looks up and barks happily at Mulder before leaping over their bodies to access Mulder's ear.

The dog was a gift from Skinner, who said they needed someone to watch out for them. They laughed and pet the collie mix, Mulder squatting down to look him straight in the eyes, Scully bent over and scratching his head. They had the hardest time naming him; he went weeks as "the dog" while they debated. Eventually Mulder suggested just naming him "Dog," to make it easy. "Why not 'Fox', then?" Scully countered, but Mulder flat out refused.

"I don't even like that name, Scully – you can't name a helpless animal that. Unless it actually is a fox."

She smiled at him, her hand on the dog's head. "I thought you'd appreciate the humor."

He shook his head slightly, smiling bemusedly at her. "Why not 'Cat', then? At least then he's not named after me." He couldn't help but think that then the dog would be named after her, in a vague way that only he would ever notice, and he loved that idea.

Scully screwed up her mouth and shook her head. "I've never been fond of cats." And that was the end of that idea.

Over the next few days, Scully had to refuse "UFO", "Roswell", and "Government Conspiracy". Mulder's ideas got more and more ridiculous, to the point where "Roswell" was starting to look good, until one day the dog stood up on his hind legs to reach the dinner table and in the process knocked over a stack of old files.

"Scully," Mulder said, "X."

"What?"

"X. The dog. X."

"As a name?"

"Yeah, think about it. You know, X-files?"

"Mulder, I remember." She leaned her head on her hand, looking at him with an exasperated expression.

"Also, he hasn't had a name for a while now – don't you think it's appropriate?"

"X, Mulder? Like the letter?"

"Yeah. What do you think?" He smiled at her, uncertain and hopeful and gleeful, and she couldn't say no again. And it did make some sort of twisted sense.

"Ok. Sure. X it is." She rolled her eyes. "And you thought 'Queequeg' was an odd name for a dog."

So the dog became known simply as X.

And now, he's licking Mulder's ear, and Mulder's squirming, and Scully's laughing at him. Mulder tosses his head and hunches his shoulders up protectively, but he's reluctant to remove his arm from around Scully's waist; she rolls over and shoves the dog away, but he only comes back, stepping on both of them in his scramble to lick them.

Finally, Mulder lifts himself up on his elbow and points at the door. "X! Go!" The dog looks at him mournfully, but Mulder is unrelenting, and finally X leaps off the bed and slinks towards the door. Mulder crashes back down to the bed, where Scully lies, still laughing. He holds her tight for a moment, feeling her entire body shake with each laugh, until he can't help but laugh as well.

He looks at her. "You know I love you, right?"

"I know." She smiles, and he kisses her, and neither of them can really stop smiling.


End file.
